Kevin Durant is no stranger to sparking controversy online, sometimes for good and sometimes for worse, but the latest KD commentary to send Twitter into a tizzy was a seemingly honest moment of forgetfulness that he quickly remedied. On a recent podcast appearance on Million Dollars Worth Of Game, he was asked for his top five teammates and rattled off Kyrie, James Harden, and Steph quickly, before pausing to think and putting Klay Thompson and then Serge Ibaka on the list.
There was a notable exception there, and when the clip hit Twitter many — including Damian Lillard — found the lack of Russell Westbrook interesting.
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) April 19, 2021
However, the full clip shows the co-hosts of the show looking around somewhat nervously thinking they were suddenly caught in the midst of a new Russ-KD beef, and asking if he’s forgetting someone. KD notes it was an honest mistake, thanking the hosts for pointing it out seemingly recognizing in real time that had they not this would’ve become a much bigger thing, and quickly shuffles Russ into the four spot above Klay and shuffling Serge off the list completely.
— Follow @TopBallCoverage (@tbcbasketbal) April 19, 2021
Many have pointed out that it’s pretty wild that he could forget Russ, which it is, but also we’ve all had forgetful moments like this and he quickly corrects himself once it’s pointed out. For someone who hasn’t shied away from speaking his mind on just about anything and hasn’t been afraid of beef in the past, KD of all people should probably get the benefit of the doubt here. If he wanted to slight Russ, I feel like he would’ve said “I stand by my list” after it got mentioned.
The more interesting part is that he clearly was ranking the top 5 as evidenced by him moving Russ above Klay at the end. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that he’d put his current teammates 1 and 2, but having Steph third is the part that would be the most controversial, at least to me.